lap top

[Roberta]

Sort of looking for a new lap top for editing. Any ideas RAM board etc etc or make
Roberta

[Graham_of_Rainham]

Re: lap top

8 MB RAM is virtually minimum for photo editing.

1920 x 1080 screen is good so that you can have a 4:3 area for the image and room for menus at the sides.

Laptop screens need much more care in use, so that your eyes are not at an angle to the surface, to avoid brightness, colour, clarity, viewing variations.

A good mouse is essential.

As for make, that's such a personal choice...

My 12 year old DELL 610C is still plodding along and has the best matte screen I've ever used (I don't like seeing my reflection in the screen - quite frightening )

Good luck with the search.

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: lap top

Sort of looking for a new lap top for editing. Any ideas RAM board etc etc or make
Roberta

A desktop is usually a better choice as you can install a dedicated graphics card, which will perform better than the on-chip graphics in a laptop.

If you have no choice but to use a laptop make sure it has a minimum i5 processor and 8 GB of RAM. If you can, a solid state drive (rather than a hard drive) will speed things up a lot.

[Wally]

Re: lap top

I think you've made a good start by asking here on the forum. No one has an axe to grind so the info will be 'hopefully' unbiased.

It's all down to personal choice, one hat doesn't fit all. Depending on what you are used to, I would suggest that the OS is the real underlying factor. Windows and Apple are different in many aspects... changing an OS can be challenging.

If you already have photo software then that may need to run on the new OS otherwise more dosh outlay.

A solid state HD may not come as standard but can make things run a darn sight faster. I replaced the original HD which i now use as an external back-up and have retained the original W8 OS just in case.

Try before you buy a few times as W8 appears to be a love/hate thing. I hated it and downgraded to W7... and never looked back. Others think it is the bees knees?

Windows always seem to be downloading patches (patch Tuesday - first in each month with some others inbetween) to their OS like an addict needing a regular fix? Apple updates are few, every few months or so, and to my mind easier to instal.

As for viruses, Apple, like Windows are not immune. Due to being more tied down/restricted than the Windows open platform are harder to pick up but I would suggest you install an AV on an Apple device.

Some laptops come with dual graphic cards, if so ensure the main one is nVidia which in my case can be removed and replaced as it is not hard-wired to the motherboard - not always the case and ensure at least 2Gb is installed - can't upgrade the GPU memory.

I found that Hi-street prices are usually OTT. Shop around. I purchased my laptop from an EU online retailer .DE - same one as the UK, and saved over £100 whose name begins with an A, and got free P&P. Savings against the Hi-street was as much again and, I got a higher spec machine to boot... an i 7 as opposed to an i 5 and with more RAM, 8Gb as opposed to 4Gb... the icing on the cake was a Blu-Ray drive as standard instead of a DVD r/w.

[DerekW]

Re: lap top

Ensure that whatever computer you buy that it has high speed export and import of data - ie Thunderbolt or USB3, So that you can export and import files very quickly - this will encourage you to make regular back ups and also store outside of the machine but easily accessible your library of images.

USB2 standard does not cut it with today's file sizes.

[Steve Lane]

Re: lap top

I purchased a Macbook Pro for my photo editing. The retina screen is the best I have used on a laptop. The only real problem is that Macbooks cannot be upgraded so you need to consider the specification of your purchase if (like me) you intend on keeping the machine for a long time.

I agree that 8GB memory is the absolute minimum for editing work - I opted for 16GB to futureproof my purchase a little. This coupled with an SSD makes working on images blisteringly fast.

[OM USer]

Re: lap top

Go for 1920x1080 screen and graphics card if you can. 8GB memory sounds good.

As an example of what is available:
Just purchased a Dell Latitude 15" 1920x1080 with 2GB Graphics Card and 500 GB Hybrid drive (has a built in SSD cache to speed things up).
I also have a Dell Alienware 17" 1920x1080 with a 750GB disk and a seperate 75 GB SSD disk configured as a cache for the other hard disk through something known as Intel Rapid Storage Technology. This boots up from cold in under 10 seconds! It also has a 2MB graphics card.

[tomphotofx]

Re: lap top

Good advice from all the above, I would just like to add if you want to get serious about editing treat yourself to a Wacom Graphics tablet instead of a mouse you won't regret it the freedom of expression will amaze you.

I'm with Steve regarding the ram 16GB minimum and a 1TB SSD drive if you want a Macbook with Retina display and remember you can run a copy of windows on the Mac as well as applications so you can have your cake and eat it too.

Tom